


Safe Returns

by salvadore



Category: In the Flesh (TV)
Genre: Amy Dyer Lives, Gen, Post-Season/Series 02, Yuletide
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-20
Updated: 2015-12-20
Packaged: 2018-05-07 20:08:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,088
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5469383
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/salvadore/pseuds/salvadore
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Amy Dyer comes back to Roarton.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Safe Returns

**Author's Note:**

  * For [SkadiofWinter](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SkadiofWinter/gifts).



It's a fog heavy morning in Roarton when Amy Dyer returns. The streets are empty, too early yet for anyone to be up and about. The good people of Roarton are likely safely tucked into their beds still while Amy walks past the unmanned boarder fence without a soul to stop her. She walks past the pub with it’s closed doors and dark windows and no one sees her skirts kicking up before as she walks, the dress a mess of graveyard dirt and long-dried blood. 

She’s cradling one of her arms with the other; it’s just about useless, she thinks she dislocated it in her escape. Somewhere on the road home she's lost her shoes and her socks have worn holes in them, but there's color in her cheeks. She dragged herself free from the wreck of a car after the collision blew open the trunk, freeing her and the graveyard dirt packed in with her. Amy walked miles to get back, and she's happy to be home. 

The fog lessens as the sun rises higher and there’s bird song. Coming around the bend toward her house, Amy can see a familiar figure on a ladder. They're making a racket, the sound of hammering breaking up the quiet, and it just makes Amy smile brightly. Even from a distance the figure’s broad shoulders and dark hair are a give away. Her feet are little less tired at the sight of Simon Monroe, they move a little faster upon seeing his sweater sleeves rolled up. Spring has finally come to Roarton. And Simon 's hammering away at something. Amy loves that she’ll be able to tease him about how handsome he looks working hard and sweating. She’s not certain that he can sweat - though she’s sweat so much on the way back there’re sweat stains on her dress. 

However, when she gets close enough, she realizes he's boarding up the front window. She gets a little closer and realizes her house is much worse than she'd left it. There's graffiti and garbage, cruel words painted on her house, but Simon's still there. She keeps smiling. Houses can be fixed. 

When she's outside the gate, Amy calls out, "Well now, I guess I shouldn't have left you dumb-dumbs unsupervised." 

It doesn’t garner the laughs she’d expected. The opposite actually. Simon startles, dropping the hammer in his hand. It lands on a mess of broken glass and bottles and rocks that appears to litter the whole yard, clattering, and she doesn't mean to but Amy flinches. Simon, though, spins around. His gaze goes wide, so he's looking over her head before he gets his bearings and looks down. 

He breathes out. "Amy," leaves his lips quiet but unmistakable in its disbelief. 

"Hey there, handsome."

Simon takes a half-step down the ladder, then stops. Amy watches a smile fight with the corner of his mouth, and her beating heart hurts with the hesitation. 

She preservers, saying, "Come on then, give us a hug!" And she spreads her good arm wide to encourage said hug. And Simon smiles, finally, and steps down toward her, looking like he’s going to say something. 

The door to the cottage opens first, and it's Kieren with a baseball bat on the other side. 

"Amy,” he sounds like Simon, breathless with the surprise. He stops brandishing the bat to let it hang at his side as he takes her in. She does the same: he’s got on an over-sized sweater and not a bit of make-up. He’s never been more beautiful.

After a moment, Kieren sets down the baseball bat and then stumbles down the stairs to her. He's smiling, but he looks like he's about to cry. Amy pulls him in as soon as she can catch her fingers on that sweater, and pulls him in so she’s hugging him tight with one arm. 

She’s got Simon around her seconds later. He's careful about it, wrapping himself around her and Kieren with a gentle touch. His hands are rough from the work, body solid against her as he gently rocks their embraced group. Amy's arm aches with the barest of contact but it's worth it. She pushes through it to comfort her boys. She draws her fingers up and down Kieren's back, breathing them both in a Kieren shakes against her. When she whispers it's against the top of Kieren's head, but she thinks Simon can hear her too. 

"Now now, did you think I was joking when I said best dead friends _forever_?"

 

They untangle together eventually. How much time passes doesn't matter to Amy. She's weeping like crazy, and doesn't bother to wipe the tears away as she pulls first Kieren and then Simon to her for one more squeeze. Drawing her fingers along the knotted pattern of Simon's sweater before she draws away. 

"Alright enough of that," Amy declares. She reaches for Kieren's hand and does her utmost to hide her surprise when it's lukewarm to the touch, nothing like Simon's. 

She pulls Kieren after her into the house, leading away to the kitchen where she plans that they'll cram together so space will necessitate that she can touch them as much as she likes. Things like showers and clean clothes, and seeing a doctor about the numbness in her fingers are things for after. To be honest she hadn't realized how desperate for them. But she feels as though letting go of Kieren's hand would break her heart.

“We need tea," Amy says. "But you two are not allowed out of my sight, promise!” 

“Promise,” Simon says sounding amused but filling the kettle all the same. 

Amy’s got her hands wrapped round Kieren’s hands, pulling him into her as she leans against the counter. She looks him in the eye and asks, “Promise?” until he’s ducking his head with a breathless laugh before promising as many times as she asks him to. 

“Is this Simon’s sweater, then?” Amy asks as her first question. His cheeks honest to goodness flush. Adding that to his wet, red eyes and Amy’s got a deadly second question to ask. She's not sure if it's her heartbeat or his she's feeling.

“You want to talk about my sweater?” Kieren asks, laughing that incredulous laugh of his that Amy adores. “What about you? About where you’ve been?” Amy very nearly cradles his face she loves him so much for not mentioning her death just yet.

"That's for me to know, and you to find out," Amy says sweetly.


End file.
